Manhattan through a foreigner’s eye. So many massive buildings, so big, so high, so over-whelming! The tall ones, all different styles, seem to be interacting over the others as if they where engaged in a giant chess game. The effect of dizziness from looking up is to feel minuscule again.
Shooting with a 1950’s camera brought two challenges here, both related to not having the Reflex system. The Reflex is what allowed the operator to see the image that the camera was filming. This feature appeared around the 60’s and before that…. you had to guess your frame. Challenge number one was capturing distant architectural pieces from far away. I wanted to capture the experience one goes through when focusing lengthily on a distance subject. In a few instances, I missed the subject, or it’s integrity. In other instances, the images came out too blurry.
Challenge number two was the focus. Out of focus shots are a great way to suggest dreaming or wondering by rendering the final image more like a painting. Unfortunately before the Reflex came around, it wasn’t possible to judge the amount by which the image would come back blurred. In this case I was surprised that many came back looking much more Out of Focus than originally intended.
